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Sentence Fragments/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are seated at a table, playing a fantasy board game. TIM: Okay, you attack the wizard with your sword of infinite sharpitude, but he casts his spell of cloakiness and disappears. MOBY: Beep. Moby frowns. Tim throws the dice. TIM: And, as you're looking around in confusion, he reappears and smites you with his mace of smashery. MOBY: Beep. Moby stands. He is still frowning. TIM: Aw, come on. Don't leave. This is fun, isn't it? MOBY: Beep. Moby hands Tim a sheet of paper. TIM: Oh, fine. We'll answer a letter instead. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what is a sentence fragment? From, Jemma. Hey, Jemma. Sentence fragment is just a fancy term for an incomplete sentence. Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate. Moby fought the dragon. An image shows Moby holding a sword and fighting a dragon. Text reads: Moby fought the dragon. TIM: The subject is who or what the sentence is about. A close-up shows Moby and his sword. The word Moby is highlighted in the text. TIM: And the predicate tells you what the subject is doing. The words "fought the dragon" are highlighted in the text. TIM: The most common type of fragment is a sentence without one of those key elements. For example, "Rita the sorceress" is a fragment. An image shows Tim's friend Rita dressed as a sorceress. She is holding a staff and casting a spell. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, Moby. It's all subject and no predicate. There's no verb to tell us what Rita the sorceress is doing. However, "Rita the sorceress cast her spell" is a complete sentence. Text reads: Rita the sorceress cast her spell. TIM: We fixed the fragment by adding the predicate "cast her spell." The words "cast her spell" are highlighted in the text. MOBY: Beep. Moby begins to walk off. Tim places his hand on Moby's shoulder. TIM: Hey, not so fast! There's another kind of fragment that's a little trickier. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Come on, stick around. I promise there'll be more cool fantasy art. MOBY: Beep. Moby smiles. TIM: Some sentences express more than one thought. Check out this sentence: "When Rita the sorceress cast her spell, Moby turned into a newt." Text reads: When Rita the sorceress cast her spell, Moby turned into a newt. An animation shows Rita turning Moby into a small robot newt. TIM: The part of the sentence before the comma is a dependent clause. The words "When Rita the sorceress cast her spell" are highlighted in the text. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, a clause is a piece of a sentence that includes a subject and a verb. Sometimes, a clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. That's an independent clause. In the sentence above "Moby turned into a newt" is an independent clause. It can form a sentence by itself. An image shows Moby as a newt. The words "Moby turned into a newt" are highlighted in the text. TIM: But a dependent clause doesn't form a complete thought. See? In this fragment, we don't know what happened when Rita cast her spell. Text reads: When Rita the sorceress cast her spell. TIM: You can even hear the difference. It just sounds like there should be something after it. The meaning depends on the rest of the sentence. To form a complete sentence, a dependent clause has to be linked with an independent clause, like "Moby turned into a newt." Text now reads: When Rita the sorceress cast her spell, Moby turned into a newt. The words "Moby turned into a newt" are highlighted in the text. TIM: So when you see a dependent clause by itself, that's another type of sentence fragment. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there's a trick. A dependent clause often starts with a word that connects it to the rest of the sentence. In this case, that word is "when." Moby turned into a newt. When? When Rita the sorceress cast her spell. The word "when" is highlighted in the text of the sentence: When Rita the sorceress cast her spell, Moby turned into a newt. TIM: Other examples of subordinating conjunctions include "after," "because," "before," "if," "since," "though," and "while." The subordinating conjunctions appear on the screen as Tim names them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Nope. Dependent clauses can go after independent clauses, too. In fact, mixing up the order of clauses will make your writing or speech more interesting. Like "Cassie was happy because she got a new sword for her birthday." An image shows Tim's friend Cassie holding a new sword. Text reads: Cassie was happy because she got a new sword for her birthday. The words "Cassie was happy" are highlighted in the text. Then the highlighting switches to the words "because she got a new sword for her birthday." Those words are labeled as a dependent clause. TIM: And "After Moby became a newt, Cassie fought the orcs alone." Text reads: After Moby became a newt, Cassie fought the orcs alone. The words "Cassie fought the orcs alone" are highlighted in the text and labeled as an independent clause. TIM: Get it? MOBY: Beep. Moby has returned to his fantasy board game with Tim. TIM: Now roll again. You're up against an entire army of bugbears. MOBY: Beep. Moby rolls the dice. Then he grabs the bugbear figures from the board and puts them in his mouth. TIM: Uh, I guess that means you win. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP English Transcripts